For over 80 years and since the Arab revolt in Palestine in 1936, the Palestinian people have been struggling against the seizure of their land in a Zionist colonial project that began even before the British Mandate on Palestinian territory. Since the “Nakba” (Catastrophe) of 1948, the destruction, exploitation and control of Palestine by the State of Israel is one of the most recent cases of Western colonialism on indigenous lands.

Despite condemnation by the “international community” for its illegality, including by the United Nations, Israeli expansionism continues through the violent bombing of civilian neighbourhoods, the forced displacement of the Palestinian population, and ongoing detention, imprisonment and killings – thus making Israel an “eternal dissident” on human rights.

Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) Condemns Memorandum of Understanding Between Israel and Canada

Canada and Israel signed a series of cooperation agreements recently, one of which included an unprecedented commitment to work jointly to counter the continued growth of BDS.

On January 22, Canadian public safety minister Steven Blaney gave a speech at a meeting on anti-semitism at the United Nations General Assembly, convened in the wake of the Paris criminal attacks, that smeared the BDS movement as “anti-semitic.”

Rafeef Ziadah, a secretariat member of the the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the broad coalition of Palestinian civil society organisations that leads the BDS movement, said:

“Rather than seeking to hold Israel to account for its war crimes during the recent military assault on Gaza and its intensified colonization of the occupied West Bank, particularly in Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, the Canadian government is further deepening its collaboration with Israel’s occupation and launching a shameful, propagandistic attack on free speech in the process.”

“The Canadian government’s continued unconditional support for Israel’s colonial policies and its smear campaign against BDS highlight the deeply ideological and reactionary character of this government. Canada is sending Israel the message that it can act with total impunity in violating human rights and international law.”

“Sadly, while claiming to defend free speech the current Canadian government is among the most repressive in the west; it has gone farther than most in suppressing free speech and infringing the rights of its own civil society, including trade unions, community and faith groups, to participate in human rights campaigning, as in boycotts against Israel’s injustices.”

Join Tadamon! on Thursday August 7th for an outdoor screening of the 2012 film Roadmap to Apartheid, a documentary that compares State policies in South Africa and Israel. We will also have a moderated discussion about the origins of Israeli Apartheid, and how we can continue to express solidarity with Gaza through ongoing support of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Ten years ago, on July 9th 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a historic advisory opinion, deeming Israel’s apartheid wall illegal. At the time, the Court called for the wall to be dismantled, for Palestinian residents to be compensated, and for Israeli compliance to be enforced by the International community. One year later, Palestinian civil society launched an appeal to Boycott, Divest and Sanction the Israeli state until it complied with international law.

One decade later, settlements have expanded, land has been expropriated, and wall construction has continued with impunity. If completed, the Wall will stretch more than 800 km, annexing an estimated 46% of the West Bank. Already the effects of the Wall have been devastating, as it has cut off farmers from their lands, workers from their jobs, students from their campuses and communities from each other.